Geneva School (literary studies)

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The Geneva School (French: Ecole de Genève ) describes a group of Romance literary scholars, most of whom were institutionally connected to the University of Geneva and whose academic work is shaped by related, if not identical, literary theoretical convictions. In a narrower sense, the Geneva School includes Marcel Raymond , Albert Béguin , Georges Poulet , Jean Rousset and Jean Starobinski . The group had a major influence on international literary studies, especially in the 1960s and 1970s.

Surname

The name "Geneva School" was launched by Georges Poulet and subsequently taken up in methodological presentations by historians of literary studies and thus spread. The group itself rejected this designation, however, as the term "school" presupposes a uniform doctrine and a common binding program, which in reality never existed. There is therefore no standard theoretical work or textbook that would record the group's beliefs. Chicken himself later called the name wrong. The individual members of the group themselves saw their togetherness primarily based on the friendly relationships among the individual scientists, which also extended into private life, and in a certain affinity, which, however, did not rule out fundamental theoretical and methodological differences, such as the correspondence between Raymond and chicken documented. From a sociological point of view, it is certainly appropriate to speak of at least a "group". This is evidenced by the practice of mutual reviewing and commenting on publications, mutual forewords to publications, jointly attended or organized conferences and discussion groups, as well as the sometimes extensive correspondence between individual members. The attribute "Geneva" in the designation "Geneva School" refers on the one hand to the institutional ties to the University of Geneva, which all members of the group apart from Poulet have, and on the other hand to the differences to the one in France at that time, and especially in Paris, represented conception of literary studies, which was still strongly positively oriented.

History and people

The "Geneva School" was not actually "founded". The intellectual exchange and personal appreciation arose rather from the contacts made at the university. Raymond and Béguin, who formed the first generation of the Geneva school, both studied in Geneva at the same time. Rousset and Starobinski both later studied with Raymond. Poulet became friends with Raymond and Starobinski. With the latter he taught together at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Raymond later actively supported Chicken's appointment to the University of Zurich.

Literary beliefs

Two basic theorems in particular are associated with the Geneva School:

1. The primacy of the literary text over all previous models and general terms of literary history, intellectual history, sociological or psychological nature

2. The conviction that a literary text articulates the specific perception of the world by its author, which the literary scholar tries to reconstruct through empathy (so-called "critique de la conscience" or "critique thématique")

In addition, the work of the Geneva School is characterized by an essayistic, literary representation ("critique littéraire" instead of "science de la littérature"). Some members of the group - for example Marcel Raymond - were also active as writers or literary translators themselves.

Precursors and stimulators

Albert Thibaudet , who was professor in Geneva from 1924 to 1936 and, as such, also teacher of Raymond, Béguin and Rousset, was described by the group itself as a forerunner . There are also references to Jacques Rivière and Charles Du Bos , who, like Thibaudet, were both authors of the Nouvelle Revue Française . The work of Gaston Bachelard is also an important source of inspiration . Like the group itself, he was interested in the imaginary, the writers' specific perception of the world. Leo Spitzer can also be regarded as a stimulus . Starobinski wrote the preface to the French edition of his work “Etudes de styles”.

Companions

Most closely associated with the group was Jean-Pierre Richard , professor in Paris from 1968, who is often referred to as a member of the Geneva School himself. Even Roland Barthes was the group at least temporarily close and taught in 1971 even during a semester as a visiting professor in Geneva. Michel Butor , who was appointed professor of French literature in Geneva in 1975, was on friendly terms with the group. In the USA, J. Hillis Miller felt close to the Geneva School at times. Jean Starobinski took part in several conferences of the Poetics and Hermeneutics group in Constance.

literature

  • Olivier Pot: Jalons pour une critique en mouvement (autour de l'école de Genève) . In: La critique littéraire suisse. Autour de l'Ecole de Genève. In memory of Jean Rousset . Œuvres & Critiques XXVII, 2. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002.
  • Jean-Yves Tadié: La critique littéraire au XXe siècle . Belfond 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olivier Pot: Jalons pour une critique en mouvement (autour de l'école de Genève) . In: La critique littéraire suisse. Autour de l'Ecole de Genève. In memory of Jean Rousset . Œuvres & Critiques XXVII, 2. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002, p. 7
  2. ↑ See J. Hillis Miller: The Geneva School: The Criticism of Marcel Raymond, Albert Béguin, Georges Poulet, Jean Rousset, Jean-Pierre Richard, and Jean Starobinski , in: Critical Quarterly , no 8, 1966; Sarah Lawall: Critics of Consciousness: The Existential Structures of Literature , 1968
  3. ^ Albert Béguin and Marcel Raymond. Colloque de Cartigny , sous la direction de Georges Poulet, Jean Rousset et al., Paris 1979, p. 257
  4. ↑ Olivier Pot, op.cit., P. 7